The Portland daily press., 1887-05-14

One truth, at least, our nineteenth century
has learned and is acting upon, that to live
in the world, look on at its misery, and re-
frain from stretching hand to tighten the
load. is to be practically allied with evil. Now
and then book is written which makes the
way more plain for improvement in one di-
rection or another, calling attention to
wrongs which exist and which it is the af-
| fair of each one Of us to have righted. Mrs.
Helen Campbell has written powerful book
| upon the conditions of working women, a Sc
ries of sketches entitled the Prisoners of
| Poverty. 1t is based upon the writer's own
| observations as. going from house to house
n the poorer districts of the city of New
| York, she has heard from one and another
| t0iler the story of her work, its payment,
and the means by which employers eontrive
to make their profits. Itmust be said in JUS
tice to Mrs. Compbell that she has no desire
to create sensation, no tendency to COM
munism OF sentimentality. She recognizes
the fact that in many instances the relations
of employer and employed are honorable
ard equitable, that sometimes. indeed, the
incapacity or folly of operatives prevents an
employer from making arrangements for
buCiA SuAulUlt anu pIUut, lueT6 remains
the discouraging truth that our cities num-
Der thousands of overworked. ill-paid wom-
en-, who, for various reasons, cannot rise
from the ranks of the Prisoners of Poverty.
The class of persons of whom Mrs. Campbell
writes are not the degraded or criminal crea-
lures who present SO terrible a problem to
social science; it is that better class of per-
sons, who would gladly improve their cond:-
| ton, and who try to make an honest living,
often oppressed and defrauded in the despe-
! rate race for wealth. No woman who reads
! Mrs Campbelps volume can ever again look
| WIFI cor~Flacency on tn piles of white gar
menus, rufiied and embroidered, to be sold at
| prices which before seemed absurdly and
now, tragically cheap; or the cloaks, adyer-
tlsed as bargains, of which the price has
been paid in the slow poison that every
| stitch pricked into the life of the sewing
woman. 1t is a law of the universe that
nothing is given for nothing; and there is
deeper reason than the mere vulgarity of
running after bargains. to make one despise
wares which are sold too much below their
rightful value. While the skilfull shopper
is congratulating herself that she has pur-
chased garment so cheaply let her remem-
Der the ten or twenty cents which she has
saved means reduction in the payment of
every piece of the dozens that are made by
some poor woman. Many petty sins are COM
mitted In the name of economy; and it is
difficult to say whether the inveterate shop
pers who will wear their strength and lose
their time in order to save few pennies on
some unimportant purchase, are most to be
| pitied for lack of the sense of the relative
worth OF things, or as possessors Of an in
stinct of the chase, petty as that of the wea-
sci or the hawk. For the state of things, in
duced by feyerish competition, no one class
is wholly to blame, certainly not the retail
dealers, nor even the manufacturers. But if
modern civilization has any hope to be the
first to avoid the ancient order that has pre-
vailed through all history, Of rise, decline
and fall. something must be done to remedy
the untold sufferings of the Prisoners of
Poverty. And such works as this of Mrs
Campbell, reasonable, practical and based on
careful reports of individual cases, are the
best preparation for the powerful measures
that may avail at least to lessen the ominous
burden that brushes uncounted lives of wom-
en- and men. Boston: Roberts Brothers
Portland: Loring, Short & Harmony
For fl.n, A.rn1c 49, T.